The Invasion, born from a duty to document the war in Ukraine
Film after film, Ukranian director Sergei Loznitsa strives to document the conflicts rocking his country. The Invasion brings us right up close to the people, showing their strength and resilience. The result of two years’ worth of filming, this important documentary will be presented in a Special Screening.
A wedding, target practice, a quiet gathering. The Invasion compiles scenes from everyday life, which are never as ordinary as they seem. War rages on, in military uniforms, grief-stricken faces and off-screen, waiting for an air-raid siren to go off.
For this documentary, Sergei Loznitsa’s crews travelled across Ukraine, while the director, working from Kyiv, received their footage and put stories—thirty in all—together in the form of short films. All that remained was to create a feature-length version with scenes arranged in a logical (based on the stages of life) and chronological (season after season) order.
“ Every shot in this film, every installment, represents unending suffering for me. ” Sergei Loznitsa
The Invasion details the Ukranian people’s fight to exist in the face of the Russian invasion. Here, Sergei Loznitsa holds a mirror up to one of his previous documentaries, Maidan, also presented in a Special Screening in 2014. Named after the famous square that saw the Ukranian people rise up, the film was a “duty” for its committed director.
“Ten years ago, you could already sense that war was imminent”, explains Loznitsa. “There were clear warnings in the speeches delivered by the Maïdan activists. No one ever gets freedom and power for free”. Once again, he films ordinary citizens, showing us that, far away from the front lines, war turns every aspect of life on its head.
